(Untitled) ADAM GOLDBERG
MARLEY SHELTON
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ACUTELY WITTY! - Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES
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SMART AND FUNNY!” - Gary Goldstein, LOS ANGELES TIMES
A COMEDY SURPRISE!” “ GRADE A-...VERY FUNNY!” “ LAUGHOUT-LOUD!”
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- Pete Hammond, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
- Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
- Marshall Fine, HUFFINGTON POST
ROUSINGLY FUNNY!”
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- Kurt Loder, MTV.COM
A NEW COMEDY BY
JONATHAN PARKER
›› FiLM
Abstract fab! Marin filmmaker Jonathan Parker’s exhibition of art-world pretensions by Re nat a Po l t
“W
hen did beauty become so f--kin’ ugly?” It’s a key question in San Rafael filmmaker Jonathan Parker’s (Bartleby, The Californians, both filmed in Marin) acerbic little comedy, (Untitled), which takes aim at contemporary art—its creators, vendors and consumers. The question is asked by Josh Jacobs (Eion Bailey), the creator of large, gauzy, unthreatening abstractions that are snapped up by a buyer for office buildings and hospitals. Josh’s dealer is Madeleine Gray (Marley Shelton), owner of a trendy New York gallery, who keeps his paintings in the back room. In the front room, meanwhile, she exhibits works by artists such Ray Barko, left, insists his grisly taxidermy is a Cervidae-able masteras Ray Barko (English footballer Vinnie Jones), who piece. mounts taxidermied animals in grotesque postures— own show, she refuses: It wouldn’t go over well with possums hanging from a chandelier, a monkey the art-buying types she’s trying to cultivate, like Porbreathing into (or out of) a vacuum cleaner hose— ter Canby (Zak Orth), who is “not familiar” with the or works by the single-named Monroe (Ptolemy work of Matisse and sees “collecting” Slocum), whose minimalist pieces as a way of social climbing. include “Wall Surrounded by Space” COMING SOON Throw in a passionate affair (a blank wall) and “Lightbulb Going (Untitled) opens Friday at between Madeleine and Adrian, On and Off” (just what it says). the Regency. See page 23 sound design by Oscar-winning Poised against these visual artists for showtimes. Richard Beggs and music by is Josh’s composer brother Adrian Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang, (Adam Goldberg), whose orchestraand this timely satire—written by tions include chains rattling in a bucket, paper being Parker and Catherine DiNapoli—packs a wallop. crumpled and torn, and a vocalist pretending to cry. Unlike the work of Monroe and Barko, Adrian’s efO O O O forts meet with little recognition—in one concert, This week’s Italian Film Festival offering is the number of audience members about equals the Federico Bondi’s Black Sea, about the complex renumber of performers. Adrian, a scowl permanently lationship between a widowed Italian woman and engraved on his face, is resentful of everyone, espe- her Romanian caregiver. Nov. 7 at Marin Center cially his successful brother. Showcase Theatre at 5:30 and 7:45pm. < Madeleine, always dressed in black, underwrites Review our reviews at letters@pacificsun.com the more experimental works by cleaning up on Josh’s lucrative paintings; but when Josh demands to be Reel off your movie reviews on TownSquare at moved to the front ›› pacificsun.com room and given his
ViDEO
Meet filmmaker for Q&A's s at the Century R eg Check thea ency! ters for details.
EION BAILEY LUCY PUNCH AND VINNIE JONES
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22 PACIFIC SUN NOVEMBER 6 – NOVEMBER 12, 2009
Duck and cover-up For a year now, the global financial crisis has been associated in my mind with a curious movie image from 1979: the gently rippling surface of a cup of coffee. The mug in question is poised at the edge of the Ventana Nuclear Power Plant’s main control console, and it’s the sight of those tiny vibration waves that remains to haunt shift supervisor Jack Lemmon long after the emergency SCRAM of that day averts THE CHINA SYNDROME, a full-core meltdown dire enough to render all of SoCal uninhabitable. Hounded by investigative TV journos Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas following the accident and ensuing cover-up, Lemmon is defiant about the system of safety checks and procedures in place:“We stopped it in time for one reason, the system works, now dammit the system works! That’s not the problem...” I was wowed by the James Bridges thriller’s austere beauty, its expertly wrought tension and boldness in going without a musical score. The theatrical release coincided famously with the real-life disaster of Three Mile Island (covered in the Special Edition extras). A double-duty metaphor for the abyss we looked down last September? “The shudder...the damn shudder...”—Richard Gould